Thursday, February 26, 2015 @ 8:00 am-5:00 pm

Lecture

Jonathan Watkins on Welcome to Iraq

BISI Annual Mallowan Lecture 

Ikon Director Jonathan Watkins gave an illustrated talk for BISI about his experiences as curator of the Iraqi Pavilion for the 2013 Venice Biennale. Having travelled extensively in Iraq, he made a selection of artists whose work exemplifies extraordinary inventiveness in the face of the challenges that can characterise everyday life for Iraqis.

Biography
Jonathan Watkins has been Director of Ikon Gallery since 1999.  Previously he worked for a number of years in London, as Curator of the Serpentine Gallery (1995-1997) and Director of Chisenhale Gallery (1990-1995).

He has curated a number of large international exhibitions including the Biennale of Sydney (1998), Facts of Life: Contemporary Japanese Art (Hayward Gallery, London 2001), Quotidiana (Castello di Rivoli, Turin 1999, Tate Triennial (2003), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Sharjah Biennial (2007), Negotiations (Today Art Museum, Beijing 2010) and the Guangzhou Triennial (2012). He was on the curatorial team for Europarte (Venice Biennale, 1997), Milano Europa 2000, (Palazzo di Triennale, Milan 2000), and Riwaq (Palestinian Biennial 2007). He curated the Iraqi Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2013.

Jonathan Watkins has written extensively on contemporary art. Recent essays by him have focused on the work of Giuseppe Penone, Martin Creed, Semyon Faibisovich, Yang Zhenzhong, Noguchi Rika, Caro Niederer, Beat Streuli and Cornelia Parker. He was the author of the Phaidon monograph on Japanese artist On Kawara.